


Bruise

by normalpanchan



Series: Through the Eyes of a Kid [6]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Crying, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 03:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16233683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/normalpanchan/pseuds/normalpanchan
Summary: Ryuji confronts his son on what happened to him.





	Bruise

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Begin Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13935063) by [Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter). 



Goro was laying on his bed, alone. It had only been a few days since he came home with bruises, mostly on his face, from the confrontation at school and he hadn’t talked to anyone since then. His friends message him, his parents worry and ask him what happened, but refused to answer them. The only times he’d leave his room for is to eat, apply medication for his bruises, and use the bathroom. He was under a terrible slump.

 _‘Why me?’_ Goro thought to himself. _‘Why did I have to get beat up for something I like?’_

The tween thought back on that day: He was setting up flyers around the school for his new band, KiraKAI Killers, hoping to get an audience, until someone and their posse came up to him and complained that the flyers were an eyesore. He didn’t care, but when one of them brought up his love for the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, he started to. He was told it was “stupid to believe that urban legend” and the next thing the boy knew, he was sporting a black eye while the instigators had similar bruises.

Goro cried to himself, but noticed that his ice pack was getting warm. He sighed to himself and walked out of his room to re-freeze it.

At that moment when he closed the freezer, he just noticed his father was standing by across from it with arms crossed, looking concerned.

“Ready to talk yet, Goro?” Ryuji asked.

The tween scoffed off his question and started walking, until his father stopped him by grabbing his arm.

“C’mon, champ. Ya can’t keep doing this.” He was stern. “You’re worrying us.”

Goro suddenly and violently shrugged off his grip and ran towards his room. Ryuji sighed in frustration. He would rather wait for Akira and Morgana to come back from work so they can confront their son together, but, if the cause for his attitude and bruises are what he think it is, he needs to confront him first.

\--

Goro shut and locked his bedroom door. He doesn’t need to be hounded by his dad; He’ll tell him and Mom and the cat and his friends about what happened...eventually, but he himself needed some time to recover. He especially knows his long-time friend Fumie would faint at the sight of his ghastly visage.

He sat down at his bed, thinking to himself, until he heard the sound of his door getting unlocked. He heard the click, meaning it was successful, and it slowly opened. His dad peeked his head through, seeing his son, then walked in.

“Heya, Goro!” Ryuji was putting on a friendly face, probably to warm him up. “Sorry. Finally found the spare key that unlocks your door, and good timing too.”

He closed the door behind him and sat down at his son’s work desk, with the back of the chair facing in front of the tween. “Goro…” Ryuji shifted back to his stern tone from earlier. “Can you please talk? At least to me?”

Goro refused to look at his father. “Leave me alone…”

“C’mon, you can’t be like this forever.”

Silence fell between the two. Looks like Ryuji will have to bring the big guns.

“Your mom was having nightmares since ya came home with those bruises.” The tween looked at him with the corner of his eyes in interest. “I don’t think you know, but it...reminded her of something that happened to her long ago and...never wanted to relive.” Ryuji’s voice was somber when he said that sentence; It hurted him too, little did his son know.

Goro looked back down in guilt. He didn’t know his mother had a traumatic experience and he brought that memory back to her; No wonder her concern and panicking was much more intense than it should be. He fidgeted his fingers against the bedsheet, slightly lifting the fabric.

“Dad…”

His father perked up. Looks like he’s ready to confess.

“...Alright, I’ll tell you.”

\--

Ryuji knew it. He figured his son got beat up because he believed in the Phantom Thieves.

It’s been around twenty years since their last endeavor. Everyone nearly forgot about them as time went on, besides a few Phans archiving their saga online and paranormal aficionados, who just think they’re ghosts. They’ve reached Urban Legend status: People know that they happened, but just _what_ were they, _who_ were they, and _how_ were they?

When Ryuji started telling stories about them to Goro at a young age, he thought it was innocent enough: fun stories to entertain his son and keep him confident. If he had the foresight, he shouldn’t have told those stories as often as he should so this wouldn’t happen. But, he shouldn’t blame himself if he didn’t know.

And right now, his son needs him.

“I’m sorry.” he concluded.

“If ya told us sooner, we wouldn’t be as worried as right now. Even your friends were. I mean, your girlfriend Fumie wouldn’t stop messaging me about you.”

“She’s NOT my girlfriend, Dad! Sheesh!” Goro took offense at that.

“Just pulling your leg, champ,” Ryuji humored, but switched back to being concerned. “But really, she was. We all were.”

Goro was quiet once again, not looking at him. He felt really bad about worrying everyone, especially his mom and Fumie. He was just so depressed, he didn’t even care about the people close to him and their concerns. All he wanted to do is get better and go back to the status quo: go to school, compose more songs for his band, and do whatever at home.

“Need a hug? Ya got some waterworks.”

He didn’t even noticed he was crying and he _even_ didn’t noticed that Ryuji was sitting next to him on the bed. So the tween reluctantly, at first, embraced his father and cried on his chest, then started sobbing harder and hiccuping.

“You can let it all out, champ.” Ryuji said, embracing back and patting his son’s head.

**Author's Note:**

> A sequel of [ivelostmyspectacles's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/) [Begin Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13935063)
> 
> need more best dad Ryuji


End file.
